From time to time. Swiss Historic Hotels
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Intro
As spectacular as the ride on the “Bernina Express” is, it’s well worth stopping off in Poschiavo and embarking on a journey of a very different kind at the historic Hotel Albrici.
Guests staying at the Hotel Albrici should set their alarm for around midnight.
And then listen to the silence. Until you can almost hear the rattle of stagecoaches and the hooves of horses on the cobblestone road that from 1865 led over the Bernina Pass and brought wealthy guests from the north to the wild, sun-drenched Val Poschiavo, to Poschiavo’s first hotel, which sits enthroned next to the church, as proud as it is steeped in myth, and never left any doubt as to who, after God, calls the shots in the village.
Then you might perhaps get out of bed, throw on some clothes, gather up some courage and tiptoe through the sleeping palazzo.
Far more than during the day, it breathes its history at night; the furniture and paintings, the painted ceilings and old floors make the past feel even closer in soft lighting. A past that began in 1682. In the same year that Louis XIV moved into Versailles in France, the mayor of Poschiavo, Bernardo Massella, also had a prestigious residence built. And of course, the magnificent rooms were the hot topic with everyone who got to see them.
Staying at the hotel is like visiting a museum. The building is over 300 years old, creating that wow effect for guests.
The aura of the stately patrician house soon radiated far beyond the country’s borders.
This was also thanks to Baron Thomas Maria De Bassus, a local who inherited the palazzo through his marriage with Cecilia Domenica Massella. In Bavaria, where he had studied, he had come into contact with the Illuminists and their aims to abolish the rule of one human being over another thanks to the Enlightenment. He set up a political and artistic centre for them in the palazzo.
Baron Thomas Maria De Bassus even had extremely heavy machines carried over the Alps to print the first Italian translation of Goethe’s “Werther” here in this very building.
The night thus takes you through the centuries and the history of this building.
A real jewel that was bought in 1828 by the Albrici family and converted into a hostel. When you finally slip back under the covers, you’ll nevertheless be glad of the state-of-the-art amenities the hotel offers within its historic shell.
And that you no longer have to travel by carriage to get there.
Today, the ride on the “Bernina Express” is a highlight experienced before even arriving at the destination itself. Craggy mountain ranges and Mediterranean flair: the view from the panorama carriages is at least as spectacular as the journey through time that awaits those setting off to stay at the Hotel Albrici in Poschiavo.
- 196 bridges
- 55 tunnels
- 70 per mille